When Did You First Take An Interest In Cooking?

by Carolina Santos-Neves

on 01/18/11 at 03:00 PM

Yesterday a friend of mine and I were discussing food blogs, and she asked me if I had ever read Foodie at Fifteen.I had not, but was immediately intrigued. As I browsed through Nick N's blog it had me thinking about my initial interest in cooking. Sure, I made edible play dough at the age of 11, and before that I "helped" my mom make cakes by sticking my finger in the batter bowl to make sure it wasn't "poison." But the moment in time that really triggered my cooking bug was when I went on a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) camping trip to Utah and Colorado. Each camper had to cook one meal and I was assigned hash brown duty. I remember not knowing if the end result was accurate, but everyone was so hungry all the time that it didn't matter. Upon my return home I asked my mom if she could teach me how to make hash browns, and that was the beginning of the beginning.

Do you remember the first time you took an interest in cooking? What did you make?

My first interest was baking, not cooking. My mom was a wonderful baker and I would pull over a chair to watch her her bake cookies, cakes, pies, breads, etc. I started baking on my own in high school to make items to sell at bake sales to support my activities. I started to cook more as a necessity, not an interest as my mom worked full time and went to school part time. My first real enjoyment of cooking came when I was in graduate school and my friends and I would get together and cook when we got paid (last Friday of the month). Those were really fun nights--the two that stood out were an Italian night and the Fried Chicken and Margarita night!

Nikki_in_Cali
05:33:54 PM on
01/19/11

In The Night Kitchen...Maurice Sendak is awesome!

I helped my Grandmother in the kitchen at a very early age but never made anything in solo mode. When I was 13 and started high school, my Mom assigned me a new chore...make dinner once a week. She didn't make any rules but it had to be edible. The first few weeks I made simple things like boxed macaroni-n-cheese, hot dogs, etc. After a few weeks I decided to challenge myself and made manicotti. The meals got better and better as did my confidence. I wouldn't call myself a chef now but I haven't heard any complaints about my meals.

I have since passed on some of my simpler cookbooks to my niece who has 3 small children. I got tired of seeing them eat frozen meals so I showed her how easy (and cost effective) a 5 ingredient dinner could be. I'd rather see them eat spaghetti a couple nights a week than frozen, tasteless bricks of "food".

mamamarie
04:13:23 PM on
01/19/11

I remember wanting to help in the kitchen way before I was old enough to be useful. My favorite children's books were the ones with food in them (In the Night Kitchen was an all-time favorite). I started cooking meals on my own around 9 and starting making yeast breads at 12. My mother was very patient and let me try pretty much anything I wanted, even at the expense of her tidy kitchen. When I was about 13, I made hard candies. The recipe said to pour the heated sugar syrup onto an oiled marble candy board. Well, I didn't have one of those, so I oiled the formica countertop and used that instead. Needless to say, the candy welded itself to the countertop. My dad set a couple chisels out, and we slowly chipped the candy off over a month or so. I had a school friend who was also a budding foodie and one night we cooked "fancy" food in courses for our parents. We made a cream soup that required a fine strainer (which we didn't have), so we strained it through the toe of one of her mother's new stockings and proudly announced our invention during the soup course. Ah, the memories. . .

lindaket
03:35:24 PM on
01/19/11

Easy Bake Oven, Fannie Farmer cookbook, brownie stew! You name it! My mom is the best cook in the world. Everything from scratch/garden. I learned very early and never stop trying new things. Thanks epicurious! You are my middle name!

culinarykitten
12:33:41 PM on
01/19/11

my earliest kitchen memory is when i was about 2 or 3 and my mother let me have some of her leftover pie scraps to make my own treats with. and make treats i did...sloppy litle turnovers with strawberry jam oozing out the side, little balls of dough, baked as hard as a rock, and what i very proudly considered my coup de gras... a dish of water and a little red food coloring with in which i'd floated a few of the raw dough scraps, as well as a handful of chopped walnuts. i remember being really excited to offer it to my dad when he got home from work... i distinctly recall my mother's concern as she whispering to him... "oh, honey...you probably don't want to eat that.."

Saintsnow
12:28:26 PM on
01/19/11

I started making Royal chocolate pudding from a box when I was 5 and what I really ended up loving soon after was baking cookies, especially Christmas cookies. I loved Spritz cookies as a child but for some reason was too shy to find out what they were called until I was about 10. I have made them every year since - alas, I am the only one in the family who eats them.

BRivers
10:41:44 AM on
01/19/11

I am from a big family. My mother cooked every night and we ate in the dining room. We had a homemade dessert every night and the kids took over the baking, mostly me. If someone didn't make something we ate ice cream which sounds Ok but it was Pathmark brand usually filled with ice crystals! I started having dinner parties in high school and found a husband who collects wine all is good

prairie_fire
10:10:30 AM on
01/19/11

I remember the very first thing I made on my own in the kitchen - Great-Grandma's oatmeal raisin cookies (at age 8), with mom teaching me the whole way. She went to work full-time out of the house when I was 6, so by the time I was 10 or 11, I was in charge of making lunch in the summer for Dad and my sister when they came in from working on the farm (hamburger casseroles and the like). In my teens, I was chief cook (following excellent instructions) for some of my dad's big meals (35-40 people) for some of the fraternal groups he belonged to - this I got paid for! Dad's a good cook (being the youngest of 5, he spent a lot of time following his mom around the kitchen), but doesn't do it at home much - too tired.

Broke out of the hamburger casserole mold in college when I got my first apartment, and have been experimenting since, which my husband appreciates (his mom can cook, but the only seasonings in his house growing up were salt and pepper; his dad is very meat-and-potatoes).

mustacci
09:44:46 AM on
01/19/11

My mother found no pleasure in cooking. She considered it a chore and duty and because of this attitude, wasn't very good at it. When I was 9, my brother 6, and my dad deployed to Vietnam, Mom got a job as a secretary. This meant that a "chore" she hated when she had a lot of time to get it done suddenly became even worse as she tried to do something within 1/2 hour. I voiced a desire for meatloaf one night and was told if that's what I wanted I'd have to make it myself. The next day using the Betty Crocker Cookbook Mom received as a wedding gift and never opened, I made meatloaf. Mom, my brother and I ate it (it was better than other things we had eaten recently) and Mom looked at me, lit a cigarette, and said, "Here's the deal, you cook and I'll wash the dishes." This was our deal until she died 25 years later, through family dinners, big parties, and holidays. I cooked my first full Thanksgiving at 11 and every year since. It's my favorite holiday.

I cooked using the Betty Crocker until it was in shreds and very stained. When I started babysitting, I would read The Joy of Cooking and the Time/Life International Series and write out recipes. One day one of the moms who was tired of coming home and finding me asleep once again in "Know Your Ingredients" gave it to me and then bought me the New York Times Cookbook.

I still love to cook, my husband and I consider all things food to be our hobby. We garden so we can grow veggies, raise our own eggs, make our own charcuterie and barbeque. I now have close to 300 cookbooks but when researching classic recipes I'll still look to see what is in Joy first.

BecFree
09:16:57 AM on
01/19/11

I can remember standing on a chair scrambling eggs when I was 5 or 6, with close supervision of course. My Dad did all the cooking when I was growing up and was very experimental so we ate a lot of things my friends didn't have. We tackled Julia Child's Bouef Bourgingnon when I was in Jr High. I was doing most of the cooking by the time I got in High School since both of my parents worked and I got home the earliest.

mairzi
08:44:09 AM on
01/19/11

When I was in 6th grade,I made my first full meal. My mom had broken her leg skiing and my Dad, brothers and I missed our family dinners so I decided to make us one. Although I already had been helping with the cooking and baking, this was my first complete dinner made with no active supervision. It was a Sunday roast beef dinner with all the trimmings including Yorkshire pudding and a layer cake from scratch. The cake was probably baked in the same heart shaped cake tins I used this Sunday for a cake for my husband and boys,
I gave my first dinner party in 9th grade, a pre dance dinner for my date and another couple before our first formal dance. I still remember the main course, Chicken al' Alba, a recipe I found in a New York Times cookbook.

play_with_food
06:56:03 AM on
01/19/11

My mom was a working mom and I started cooking, making meals for the family at about 11-12. I was so fortunate that my father was encouraging not matter how my cooking experiments went awry (my younger brothers, not so much)

drvining
09:59:06 PM on
01/18/11

Moi? I invented peanut butter on toast when I was about 8. But the first time the culinary lights came on I was about 12. Started making pancakes one weekend morning and as the household awoke and our kiddie friends came by I had an amazing day as a short order cook. These days I love complicated dinners and involved recipes, but I will always love serving up a hot weekend breakfast. Order up! (With huge gratitude and apologies to those who do this for a living- I couldn't do what you do but you have my thanks.)

JMidJr
09:13:07 PM on
01/18/11

As a college freshman in a small town, I quickly found that the food in the local eateries was abysmal, and expensive (eating deeply into valuable party money -- hey,it was college...) The point was driven home for good when I tried unsuccessfully to bite into a "chuckwagon steak sandwich" - and couldn't! (It was really like a comedy routine with the 'steak' stretching like rubber; my date thought it was funny. I did not!)

Anyway, I knew I could cook better food and for far less. I was an unsophisticated cook, but able to make rice, fry a pork chop, create some of the casseroles, pot roasts, and such that I'd grown up with. I enjoyed them as did my roommates and friends. (And I learned that good food and hospitality made for a better party than beer alone - a shocker!)

Soon I discovered Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet, found fresh mushrooms in the market, saw fresh broccoli for the first time (vegetables neither frozen nor canned!?!), and found the little packets of yeast on the baking aisle. I was hooked and have enjoyed the kitchen for more decades than I'm willing to admit as a result.

NotYourOrdAgent
08:24:32 PM on
01/18/11

I helped my mom in the kitchen growing up, but I think deep down she worried I would mess things up! ha!
I remember making some tuna salad for college roommates and they were in shock. I didn't make the typical relish, tuna, mayo. I added kalamata olives, feta, mustard and tuna. It's still my favorite. I think their reaction is what sparked my passion.

nancyj123
08:07:48 PM on
01/18/11

I started young at about 12 with the standard brownies, fudge and things. At 15 I was asking for cookbooks for Christmas and cooking Veal Parmesan for my friends at little dinner parties! I wish my kids, ages 17 and 15 showed the same love of cooking!

rivkaht
08:03:03 PM on
01/18/11

I was 8 when I started baking chocolate cake every week for my family. I remember pretending I had a cooking show while getting the cake together when my babysitter was there. My father used to watch an Asian cooking show that inspired me...probably "Yan Can Cook" or something like that. I just remember the chef wearing an apron saying "Let's go Woking", and I thought that was the *funniest* thing *ever* .

leckrich
07:08:30 PM on
01/18/11

I've loved the kitchen since I was in elementary school, or even before that. Bread came first...my mom always made rolls, and grandma made wholewheat bread. I learned from the pros....still think that learning to make bread is much better done with a mentor than just a recipe. I was very active in 4H as a kid too, and entered every food product that had a class. By the time I was 13 I did most all of the cooking for the family. My mom worked outside the home all day, and she was more than happy to have me do it!

EpiDiana
07:00:05 PM on
01/18/11

The very second I realized that pantry staples could magically be combined to create CAKE!!! age 8

HeidiB4
06:54:54 PM on
01/18/11

My first home-cooked meal was in our cabin up north in Wisconsin. It was really good, but at 10 years old, I really underestimated the growing the pasta does during cooking! :)

pambeabrooks1
05:35:32 PM on
01/18/11

I have been cooking since I was 10 years old (not very well then). A group of friends and I started giving dinner parties when we were 14 years old - that was when I discovered I could read and recipe and execute well - foody ever since and I am now 56 yo.

JudyLee1
05:25:01 PM on
01/18/11

I remember watching "Galloping Gourmet" as a very young child. I have always been interested in food and cooking. As a teenager I experimented with recipes (sometimes awful! sometimes wonderful!) and as a mom of 3 boys have developed some good basic recipes for a crowd plus some VERY good recipes for guests. I will always look for a better recipe!

pagopago
05:16:05 PM on
01/18/11

I was raised by a single mother with 2 brothers. She worked full time, so we were all doing chores and cooking from the very beginning. I remember being responsible for dinner at age 7. These were not gourmet meals - very plain meatloaf, or spaghetti or our version of Spanish rice. We couldn't afford to go out or buy anything premade, so we made everything from scratch.
I certainly didn't make my kids so responsible as young, but they did help in the kitchen from 3 or 4 years on, and both are teens now, and good cooks.

pagopago
05:16:02 PM on
01/18/11

I was raised by a single mother with 2 brothers. She worked full time, so we were all doing chores and cooking from the very beginning. I remember being responsible for dinner at age 7. These were not gourmet meals - very plain meatloaf, or spaghetti or our version of Spanish rice. We couldn't afford to go out or buy anything premade, so we made everything from scratch.
I certainly didn't make my kids so responsible as young, but they did help in the kitchen from 3 or 4 years on, and both are teens now, and good cooks.

cpauldin
04:59:40 PM on
01/18/11

My Mom is a great cook/baker and we were always welcome in the kitchen as children- baking came first for us of course! When I was 12 my mother went back to work and as the oldest I took over making supper before my parents came home. Many disasters!! But I will say that my parents ate every single thing I put in front of them, no complaints: burned meat, burned potatoes, underdone everything else- and I learned, and I learned, and became a great cook/baker myself!

shesiamer
04:29:07 PM on
01/18/11

I blathered on for years in my youth about how i 'couldn't' cook - but the reality was that I had never tried. I don't remember any particular moment of inspiration, but wrapped up in a new found fire to cook, was a new found love of wine. As my skills developed, my memories of cooking and baking with my mother grew stronger. It was always encouraged. Now cooking a meal puts me at ease and discourages stresses of the day, by replacing them with creativity and satisfaction.

Rockie
04:24:58 PM on
01/18/11

My mother's kitchen was off limits for cooking to anyone but her. And anyone who is on the forums knows that my mother was also known as perhaps the worlds WORST cook.
She went shopping one Saturday morning when I was about 11 or 12. I had been planning to try this stunt for awhile, so this was my golden opporurtunity. I made chocolate pudding (from a box, but still cooked) chocoalte chip cookies and something else- I forget what.
When she got home, she was surprised and reacted unexpededly calmy, but let it be known that she wasn't happy. I had a ball, and the die was cast.
After that, I was allowed to make some Saturday night suppers- like breakfast for dinner. My dad loved my hot cakes, which mom never made cuz she claimed they always stuck to the skillet. (she never had it hot enough)
When I went to school and moved out, I was just a cooking fool and haven't stopped to this day. Still the best way for me to relax is to putz around in hte kitchen.

SouffleBombay
04:15:31 PM on
01/18/11

I was 9 years old. I made my first cake on my own and I can still see myself carrying it proudly out to my mom, dad and 4 siblings - so excited, so proud! THAT moment set me on my path to loving cooking for friends and familuy and that moment is what I pulled from to then write a childrens cookbook with a twist. Who knew then that it would be a defining moment for me :)

mpoppie
03:55:41 PM on
01/18/11

I had dabbled on and off through High School and College, but I really became a foodie when my daughter and I moved into our house and I was dead broke. That is what made me be creative and learn new cuisines. It is also what made me find all the great bargins at farmer's markets and stop buying processed food.

crpaulk
03:53:29 PM on
01/18/11

It seemed like my mom was always on a diet. If you wanted something like cookies or brownies, you had to fend for yourself. I started cooking when I was about 9 or 10. I'm teaching my 8 year old granddaughter to cook now. She makes beautiful scrambled eggs & omelets, can whip egg whites to a stiff tower, makes a delicious peanut-butter cup ice cream and more. She made almost all the appetizers for Thanksgiving and helps in preparing every meal when she visits.

gc0707
03:52:36 PM on
01/18/11

Definitely college. I grew up eating flavorful food at home so went through a bit of culture shock when I had to eat the bland food at the campus dining hall. Suddenly, I found myself missing food that I had always taken for granted. One of the first things I remember making were white rice and black beans (very typical of Cuban fare) - didn’t turn out like mom’s. Fortunately my cooking has greatly improved since then!

sjschnarr
03:34:38 PM on
01/18/11

I don't remember a time when I didn't love being in the kitchen. Food was always a big part of our lives growing up. My parents entertained a lot and I was often conscripted to be a sous chef. I have fond memories of helping out, except the time I had to peel tiny potatoes for 16 people.

inajanine
03:22:31 PM on
01/18/11

I received a Betty Crocker cookbook for kids on my 10th birthday and went straight to the kitchen to make french toast. What a mess :)) My parents or rather my mom was very patient and I seem to remember she kicked me out of the kitchen after a while so she could clean up after me. Happy days! :))

s4r4h
03:17:09 PM on
01/18/11

My mom always cooked, every night. So Sundays became the day Dad would take over. He loved trying recipes from The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook (1982 edition). I was about 10 when he started this tradition, 25 years ago. I do remember that we made moo goo gai pan. It took several hours and at least two trips to the grocery store, but it was delicious and a ton of fun. My kids now ask to cook something from that cookbook with my dad for their birthday dinners.

fid031181
03:12:30 PM on
01/18/11

I was a late bloomer... as a freshman in college I got so sick of the terrible microwaveable meals, I worked on fixing them any way possible. As a sophomore I was finally given my first kitchen in a dorm. That was the moment where I really started cooking hardcore. I spent the rest of my days addicted to the stove and all the crazy concoction I could make. I remember one of my very first dishes was a couscous (boxed). The actual grain came out the size of a small marble... not good!

Felipe
www.worthkitchen.com

ccheer
03:11:06 PM on
01/18/11

I was about 8 years old and made a jelly-rolled meat loaf. Chopped meat, ham and mozzarella cheese in the form of a Jelly roll. Drizzled with tomato sauce... Nowadays, no meat, but plenty of fish and fowl. Try to avoid "fowl fish" though. And, that first time was many years ago...more than 40 years ago, that is.